


To my heart be true

by fictorium



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Friends to Lovers, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 22:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11541918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: Yeah. Supercorp happened. I was challenged, I wriggled, but I found a story I wanted to tell for @runyonsun.Call it my fandom peace offering.





	To my heart be true

Lena arrives in National City with a scandal at her back and a fresh start on the horizon. Somewhere between the two, in the smudges of time and space that comprise an uprooted life, she realizes some things about herself and the people who cross her path. 

No matter how many shady creeps approach her with promises to turn her billions into further billions, she will never continue Lex’s work into anti-alien weaponry. The one exception is the prototype for the detection device, one that’s so easily fixed that she’s already mentally soldering the right circuits into place the moment she lays her hands on it. 

It’s a handy pet project to have, when the journalists come sniffing around. Lex had his suspicions - rants, really - about Superman living amongst them, with a secret identity. Lena’s own patented facial recognition software has yet to be fooled by a pair of glasses and a change in parting, so she’s well aware of who’s snooping into her affairs when the shuttle is sabotaged. 

It actually impresses her, how Kara manages the instant nullification of the device. There’s more to her ability to disguise than even Lena has been able to uncover. If an umpire were keeping score, it would be first point to Kara Danvers. Luckily, that’s the most assured way to wedge herself firmly in Lena’s realm of interest.

Her mother is a minefield all of her own, one that Lena has become rusty at navigating, especially now she does it in the killer heels of a rookie CEO trying to keep up appearances. The temptation roars back, strong and pathetic as ever, to believe the lies that Lillian peddles in the name of getting her way.

Turn against Supergirl (against Kara, almost always Kara in Lena’s head), against all of the aliens who come here and work, make homes, make families, or keep almost entirely to herself. Lena knows the spark of hatred that lies within her, buried deep. It’s a gift, perhaps even genetic, that all Luthors share. Every day she makes a conscious choice not to give it oxygen enough to flicker into flame, and she uses every defense she has against the gasoline her beloved mother would pour on it.

But she’ll never be her brother, a disappointment that Lillian will neither accept nor forget. Time and again she comes for Lena, to use her or manipulate her in the name of a cause that Lena never signed up to. Just when her resolve is weakening, when it would be so much easier to cooperate than fight it again, there’s Kara at her side, all wide-eyed belief and faith that Lena can’t believe she deserves.

“Why?” She asks over kombucha on their hastily-rearranged lunch. Even Lena isn’t sure what she’s asking, but it’s rooted somewhere in _why won’t you tell me the truth_ mixed up with _why do you want to be my friend at all?_

“Why did I order a third plate?” Kara blushes, like she’s been caught in a lie. “Sorry, I mean I’ll totally pay for lunch, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, Kara,” Lena reassures, and in a fit of daring she reaches across to pat Kara’s hand where it’s gripping the table hard enough to cause splinters. Kara relaxes at the comfort, while Lena thinks she might have just caught fire beneath her skin. “I was asking why Snapper rejected your article. Do you need me to call him for you?”

“No!” She looks flustered at the very idea. “Ms Grant - Cat - she was really insistent I learn to live up to Snapper’s standards. I’ll just have to try again I guess.”

Lena withdraws her hand, because it’s honestly been a minute too long, but the feeling like she might burst into flames doesn’t abate, not while Kara is giving that determined, slightly lopsided smile from across the table. 

“You’ll rock it,” Lena assures her, because the only thing she’s learning to enjoy more than someone who has faith in her, is someone to have faith in too. 

***

Lena almost blows it as they flee from the Daxamite ship. She’s grown to loathe _Mike_ from afar, and her sympathy hasn’t increased to discover he’s a slave-owning prince from a planet-invading line of narcissistic assholes. It doesn’t take months of friendship with Kara to know that her first priority would have been to get Lena safely out of there, whatever the cost. Not stand around and almost marry her to further the alien line. Although the thought of Kara opposite her in a delicate white dress doesn’t fill Lena with the revulsion she feels at the galaxy’s most disappointing attempt at a hero.

She can’t believe he flees along with Lena and leaves Kara behind. As betrayals go, it almost blinds her to her mother’s plans. Thankfully for Earth, Kara is more than a match for Rhea and Lillian alike, and anticipated deception that even Lena didn’t see coming.

It’s in moments like this that she understands why Kara might think she’s outsmarting someone with advanced degrees who sees her a few times a week. In battle, Supergirl seems invincible, so very sure that she’s superior to whatever she fights. It must be hard not to look down on humans just a little when they’re so fragile, so lacking in special abilities. Lena wants to tell her that’s okay, that she’s used to feeling that way, but then Kara’s boyfriend is gone for good, and there are more pressing concerns.

“You know,” Kara announces, on a movie night that features no romantic comedies, no sweeping tragedies of lovers torn asunder. “Sometimes I feel like I can tell you anything, Lena.”

“You can.” She sets her wineglass on the low table, ready for the moment she can stop denying that she worked it out, and ask a hundred burning questions about _how._ “I’m a vault, you must know that by now.”

“Okay, here goes,” Kara says on a long exhale, fingers fidgeting on her lap. “I think I’m over him. I know it hasn’t been long, but Alex said something about how sometimes you make a big deal just because the person says he wants you so much and… I miss him, but I don’t think I need him back. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Kara.” Lena isn’t sure she’s ever been more serious about something she has to say. They’re so close to finally clearing the air, she can’t be distracted by that stupid boy again. “There’s nothing that could make you a bad person. I told you before, you’re my hero. I don’t say that lightly. And that won’t change, whatever I find out about you.”

“You say that now, but what if I have some serious flaws?” Kara teases. “Did you know I put ketchup on mac and cheese.”

Lena shudders for effect, and Kara lets loose a little squeal of laughter before gathering Lena up in a hug. The world stops for a minute as they embrace on Kara’s lumpy but comfortable sofa, and as Kara mutters something about how Lena is _the best_ , she tells herself this can be enough. She doesn’t need a confession to know Kara better than she’s ever known anyone. 

***

The kiss is unexpected, a darting contact of lips on a cold Metropolis morning. They’re in town for different reasons, not even traveling together, but when Kara comes to the receiving room of the Luthor family home, she looks nervous enough to puke on the shiny black marble. Lena’s only looking to reassure her, but when she lays a soothing palm on Kara’s cheek, she responds by leaning in and kissing Lena softly on the mouth.

“Sorry,” Kara mutters, cheeks aflame with embarrassment when Lena pulls back. “I don’t… I missed you. It’s been a weird few days with Clark and Lois.”

“Well, what happens in Metropolis stays in Metropolis, right?” Lena answers, and they both hear the hint of danger in those words. An invitation, and maybe a warning too. “Very European of you, to greet someone like that. Did you ever spend time over there?”

“I’ve been tons of… the regular amount of times,” Kara fumbles, still uncomfortable with their environment. “You know, in college and stuff.”

“I hate the flying,” Lena sighs, taunting now. “Even by private jet, it’s still such a chore. I could save so many hours if I could just zip around the globe like one of those Kryptonians. Think your pal Supergirl would give me a lift sometime?” 

“She would love to,” Kara replies without much enthusiasm. She’s on guard here, and her look towards Lena is wary. “Listen-”

“Don’t tell me here,” Lena pleads, seeing what she’s finally engineered. “Not in this house. The only news I’ve ever had here has been bad. The end of things. Changes I could never undo. Just… later, okay? Back home?”

“Okay,” Kara sighs with relief. “You fly back tomorrow?”

Lena nods. “You should cancel your flight and come with me. I promise it’s much nicer than coach. Much kinder on the hair. I mean… legs.”

It’s enough to make Kara close her eyes for just a second, absorbing the confirmation that there’s nowhere left to hide.

***

They take off seven minutes late, the longest the pilot can allow for Kara to show up without missing their slots at either end. Lena usually enjoys the solitude of her cabin, but she’s snappish and prowls the limited space like a caged jaguar until they’re racing the sun to reach the outskirts of National City first. 

Will she run? Lena knows that Kara could disappear, even if Supergirl never does. She’s heard enough of the shadowy organizations to know that they can disappear anyone, that Supergirl could be unleashed daily and no one would ever know where they kept her. Lena has to hope she hasn’t driven her only friend to something so miserable.

There’s a shadow in the corner of her living room that Lena recognizes without needing to turn on the lamp, but she lights up the space anyway. There stands Supergirl, eyes flinty and arms crossed. Her cape is fluttering slightly though Lena could swear there’s no breeze tonight. 

“I suppose you can’t fly in a shift dress,” Lena opens, trying her best to make sure it doesn’t sound bitter. “I understand why you couldn’t tell me, but it was going to show eventually. This way, if you kiss me again, I’ll know all the truth I deserve to know.”

“Who says I will?” Kara demands, and Lena just shrugs. She’s never been especially confident in how attracted people are to her, but something in Kara’s entirely busted tone says it was the right card to play. “It’s my secret to keep, Lena. Because it’s dangerous. Because if you know, you’re at risk.”

“My own family tries to kill me on a semi-regular basis,” Lena points out. “You’re not even close to the most dangerous thing in my life, Supergirl.” She waits the requisite moment to let it settle. “Kara.”

“So now you know,” Kara opens her arms wide, an elegant bird in flight even though her feet never leave the ground. It’s an opening, and Lena strides across the room as though following an invisible line drawn between them. “Does it change anything?”

“It means you can kiss me, and this time I won’t stop you. Now I know _who_ I’m kissing.”

“Actually-”

“Kara, don’t tell me I mean whom, and get over here.” 

She does, arms around Lena in a second, nothing quick about the kiss this time when their lips meet. The kiss is an exploration, a tentative promise of more. Above all, it’s the first truly honest moment between them, and Lena already knows she’ll be greedy for more. 

“Hello,” Kara says when they part for a breathless moment, foreheads touching. “I’m Kara Zor-El, last daughter of Krypton.”

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Lena tells her, and she means every word. 


End file.
